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WYNN-WIN TEXT BOOK SOLUTION FOR STUDENTS AND BOOKSTORE

To every student that ever wished his/her textbooks cost a little less and were a little more affordable; please see Mr. Lenard Wynn-Summers. Mr. Wynn-Summers is a Sociology professor at CCC and has come up with an incredible way to lessen the price of textbooks for his students.

Two years ago he moved to Flagstaff and became a professor at CCC. Originally, Wynn-Summers was a department chair for 2 years and taught at Moraine Valley Community College for 11 years in Chicago, Illinois. During his time in Illinois, he came into contact and developed a close relationship with the textbook company McGraw Hill. McGraw Hill has given Wynn-Summers the opportunity to pick and choose exactly what chapters or sections he wants in his textbooks for his students. This kind of customizing has cut the prices of his students’ textbooks virtually in half!

According to the National Association of College Bookstores, “wholesale prices of college textbooks have risen nearly 40 percent in the past five years,” (The Washington Post). This rise is due to newer editions of textbooks being printed nearly every 2-3 years instead of the usual 5 years. Often times these newer additions provide little alterations. So why reprint every 2-3 years if there is not enough information to sufficiently contribute new and useful information in textbooks? The textbook companies reprint because one, some textbooks really do need to be adjusted before the 5 year mark due to our continually changing world, and two, textbook companies have found this as a new way to make money turn over faster. As a result, the students suffer.

With the help of McGraw Hill, Wynn-Summers has been able to reduce the number of textbook chapters based on the course outcomes for assessment purposes. Therefore, students aren’t paying for extra textbook chapters that aren’t covered in the course outcomes. You might be wondering, how does this work? Well, there is a pretty logical and simple way of looking at it. McGraw Hill, the last American publishing company, is out to provide its customers with some “good, old-fashioned customer service”.

If you’re wondering if the CCC bookstore loses money on this deal, you’ll be surprised to know that it actually saves money. “It’s all about the control of distribution,” said Wynn-Summers. That is, these new textbooks will always be sold back to the CCC bookstore; which in turn, saves on ordering and shipping of new textbooks to replace the textbooks that aren’t sold back to the bookstore at semester’s end. As Wynn-Summers said, “It’s a win-win deal”.

According to Wynn-Summers, at least 3 other faculty members at CCC are looking into this new option of acquiring cheaper textbooks for students. So for CCC students there is hope of lessening the burden of buying textbooks, “It’s [just] a matter of embracing new alternatives,” says Wynn-Summers.